Iapetus Shift

Chapter 13

Olan stood atop the Marina Bay Sands hotel, overlooking the busy skies and lush greenery of Singapore, Earth. Flying vehicles and delivery drones dipped and swerved over the crowded streets. None of them were like the vehicle he'd arrived in, though. Not even close.

After snatching a shocked and bewildered Estha and Adya from their room in Artemis' base, they'd vanished to a hospital on Mars, in Adya's hometown of Argyre, to drop him off for the treatment he needed. Then they'd come here. Just like that. A simple typing and swiping on the controls and they were instantly millions of kilometers away, hovering above the beautiful city.

Resa had done something to make the field opaque from the outside, so as not to draw attention. Though a flying white sphere was somewhat out of the ordinary, it was nothing compared to the heads they'd turn flying around in a transparent one with no visible engines.

Now, Estha was ordering food from the hotel for them. Olan wasn't hungry, though. After being fed rumors for so long, Olan could finally taste his goal.

Resa came to stand next to him at the edge of the roof. She'd been mingling at the bar, but Olan wanted to stay away from the crowd. His mangled face drew too many uncomfortable stares.

"It still might not be real, you know," she said.

"I know."

"But if it's not, it doesn't matter so much now."

"Why's that?"

She laughed, then a moment later seemed to realize he wasn't joking. "I can make all the medication you need," she said, shrugging. "And if you don't want to travel with me, I'll just leave you with . . . fifty, a hundred years' worth. It's easy."

Olan looked at her and could detect no trace of guile in her eyes. She was serious, and from what he'd seen from the device so far, he had no reason to doubt her. Thinking of a storeroom filled with hundreds, thousands of his blue syringes was like balm on a burn. He felt cool and light, and free for the first time in longer than he could measure. It was a freedom different than what he got from shifting. It was a freedom to be himself, whoever he was, even if he had to spend the rest of his years running from the law for what he'd done.

"Seems like nothing is impossible with that thing," he said.

She smiled. "The Star."

A star gives life and beauty to the worlds that surround it, Olan thought. Or takes it all away with a gamma-ray burst.

"How did you get the way you are?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I just am."

"Well, where are you from? Were you always like this?"

"Does it matter?"

Olan laughed. "Maybe I like to solve puzzles, too."

Estha returned with trays and trays of food, which they scanned into the Star to reproduce at their leisure.

Olan picked at his meal, thinking of what he would find out after talking to Melton Skrit, the man Resa had determined was their best bet of finding the nanobots. He didn't know how he'd afford it, with his accounts frozen again by Artemis, and Victor hot on his tail. But whatever happened, he knew he was done with hiding, and done with shifting. If that meant that he was stuck with this patchwork face forever, then so be it. It wasn't so bad a face.

He looked up at Estha, chatting and eating and smiling. She'd said earlier that she wanted to stay with him, to see his search through to the end, now that they actually had a trail. She'd already forgiven him, it seemed, for what he'd done on The Nile. She cared for him in the same way he did her. He'd always assumed it was different for her, that maybe she cared only for the sake of learning to act like a human. But even if it had started out that way, you could only pretend to be something for so long before you became it. Or forgot what you used to be.

Resa accepted a plate of noodles, taking small, careful bites, chopsticks held precisely in her slender fingers. She caught Olan looking and smiled. Olan figured he would never understand her completely. But he could tell that she cared, too, whatever her reasons. She wanted to use the Star to help people, and he got the impression she had some grand scheme to fix the world like she might fix a damaged machine. She'd offered to take Estha and him anywhere they liked—a free pass to tour the solar system. The thought thrilled him. There was so much he hadn't seen, and the parts he had seen he'd been too busy or scared to really look at.

With all of existence as an option, he didn't know what he'd do next. But if he was doing it with them, maybe he'd be happy.

"Hey, Olly!" Estha caught his eye and smiled, raising a glass of foaming beer. He saw she'd ordered one for him and Resa as well. "To new faces, and new places," she said. "And to us!"

"To us," said Olan, taking a drink. It was bitter, crisp, refreshing. New.

Resa had been staring into her glass; now she raised it and smiled. "Lager, sir, is regal!"